In his classic study of romanticism and literary theory, The Mirror and the Lamp , MH Abrams points out the crucial change in images of the mind – from the mind as a “mirror” of outside reality to the mind as a “lamp” or a “fountain” that determines what it knows. In England, this shift was the work not of philosophers but of poets: “The Copernican revolution in epistemology – if we do not restrict this to Kant’s specific doctrine... Read more
Hannah Arendt claimed that “An object is cultural depending on the duration of its permanence: its durable character is opposed to its functional aspect, that aspect which would make it disappear from the phenomenal world through use and wear and tear . . . . Culture finds itself under threat when all the objects of the world produced currently or in the past are treated solely as functions of the vital social processes – as if they had no other... Read more
At the climactic moment of reversal in the court scene in Merchant of Venice , Portia tells Shylock: “This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood.” “Jot” comes to English through the Greek iota , which is linked to the Hebrew YOD through Jesus’ usage in Matthew 5. At this juncture in the play, the word not only denotes “a whit” or “the smallest amount,” but evokes Jesus’ claims about His relation to the Law in the Sermon... Read more
spectral rime-frosted trees in early morning moonlight cast shadows on the pasture Read more
John 6:35: Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. Throughout the centuries, Christians have thought about the Lord’s Supper by analogy with the incarnation. Just as God became man in Jesus, so the bread and wine of the Eucharist are or contain the body and blood of Christ. Luther put it this way: “What is true concerning Christ is also... Read more
Luke 2:6-7: And it came to pass that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Christmas is a particularly appropriate time to baptize an infant. As we saw in the sermon this morning, Christmas is all about the humility of God who became a baby... Read more
Christmas is a joyful season, but for many it turns into something else. Instead of joy, it is full of disappointment and unhappiness. Instead of an occasion for family fellowship, it becomes an opportunity for opening old wounds, reigniting old arguments, giving new life to rancor that should have died long ago. Instead of being a time of feasting, it becomes a time of fighting. This is not inevitable, but it is all too common, even among Christians. Christians remain... Read more
In many ways, The Island is a silly movie: Long, repetitive, boring chase scenes, inexplicable explosions, impossible escapes, gaping holes in the plot, all filmed with MTV quick-cuts and apparently lit with strobe lights. Somewhere on the far side of the silliness, however, is a welcome indictment of the dehumanization and outright murder involved in genetic manipulation, cloning, and other biotechnologies. Remarkably, the film hits a number of key prolife themes. The connection between slavery and bioethics is hammered from... Read more
RPC Hanson, among others, argued that Athanasius’ Christology minimizes the humanity of Jesus: “We must conclude that whatever else the Logos incarnte is in Athanasius’ account of him, he is not a human being.” Not so, argues Khaled Anatolios in his 1998 study of the theology of Athanasius. In appropriating the human nature, the Logos took to himself all that was proper to a human nature, including features and attributes that were not proper to the Word as eternal divine... Read more
In his book on Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy (St. Vladimir’s, 2004), John McGuckin describes the Nestorian reading of the gospels. The gospels describe the birth and growth of the man Jesus, and also describe a person whose powers are beyond human powers – the power to raise the dead and to walk on the sea, for instance. At the same time, there is a unity to the character of the gospels, which Nestorius labels “Christ.” McGuckin... Read more
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